Large quantities of water are produced during oil and gas operations. One particular type of produced water is waste water from oil sands mining operations for bitumen production. This waste water can contain a high percentage of suspended solids known as oil sand tailings. These tailings can consist of water, sand, silt and clays which can become mature fine tailings (MFT) over time.
Oil sands tailings now occupy an inordinately large area in relation to total mining distribution. This results in large inventories of MFT requiring long term storage within fluid containment. Additionally, tailings lakes are toxic and prone to leaking. The growing volume of MFT waste represents a significant environmental liability that continues to grow proportional to increases in bitumen production. Prompt, effective measures are needed to stop the growth of MFT and remove the accumulated waste from the landscape.
Chemical aids such as polymer flocculents and coagulants have been widely employed in order to promote separation of suspended solids in tailing lakes. Commercial polymers such as polyacrylamide are high molecular weight polymers which can cause significant increases in viscosity even at low dosages. As a result, fines settling rates can be negatively impacted. Thus, improvements in this field of technology are desired.
While certain preferred illustrative embodiments will be described herein, it will be understood that this description is not intended to limit the subject matter to those embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as may be included within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.